


not everything is gonna be the way you think it ought to be

by artificialashley



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No One Is Dead, Everyone knows each other other than Dani, F/F, Wedding Guests AU, and dani is the defintion of gay panic, jamie is incredibly british, mild smut if you squint, small amounts of angst in flashbacks, wedding au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:22:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27693362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialashley/pseuds/artificialashley
Summary: “Bride or groom?” Her voice took Dani off-guard, blood rushing to her cheeks when she realised that she had most likely been sitting staring directly at the girl like a crazy person since the second she sat down.At least she’d been right about the British thing.“B-Bride.” She nodded, the word stuttering from her mouth with a specific type of panic that she’d realised was exclusive to a certain situation. A certain situation that involved beautiful women and Dani’s inability to speak any coherent English whenever they looked her way.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 46
Kudos: 346





	not everything is gonna be the way you think it ought to be

Dani didn’t quite know how to describe the feeling that swirled around her head as she entered the church. At first, she thought it was deja vu, the sickly irritation that she’d done it before. It would have made sense, given the amount of time she had spent picking flower arrangements, organising seating plans and writing out invitations just like the one she had folded in her purse. But in that same strand of though, it didn’t really make sense at all. Because despite the flowers and the seats and the painstakingly annoying invitations, she’d never made it as far as the church. Never made it as far as the actual wedding.

After a split second, she managed to choose a pew near the middle - close enough to be able to see the smile on Owen’s face but far enough back so all of the important people, who weren’t simply college friends of the bride, could see that smile just a little bit clearer. If it had been her own wedding then Hannah and Owen would have probably been closer to the entrance, pushed back by the hoards of Eddie’s family and friends who were far too excited to welcome her into their cohort.

She still felt bad for them. So bad for them.

It wasn’t long till she was joined in the pew, a slender woman soon slipping in next to her. On first glance, it seemed as though her black dress was an anomaly in the array of lilacs and yellows that accompanied the spring wedding, until, of course, Dani looked closer to see dark pink flowers that adorned each curve and matched perfectly with the colour of the woman’s lips and the feeling inside of Dani too. The purity of a white mixed with the power and passion of a red, the red taking over to make the colour darker and let Dani know which side the scales tipped in. Certainly, the more dangerous side of the two.

She didn’t speak at first, simply raising a brow to Dani before stretching out in the pew (Dani finding herself amazed for a second at how the woman managed to make a rock-hard piece of wood look so comfortable and relaxing). The air around them was warm, the strange feeling Dani experienced before washing away to reveal one that might have been deja vu for real. A breath she didn’t even realise she was holding began to make its escape, her shoulders slipping down from their raised pedestal as the thoughts of the wedding she abandoned melted away. And despite knowing just from her stance that this woman was certainly British and had never once set foot on American soil, at that moment Dani would have bet money that they already knew each other, the kind of money that an elementary school teacher couldn’t afford to gamble away lightly.

“Bride or groom?” Her voice took Dani off-guard, blood rushing to her cheeks when she realised that she had most likely been sitting staring directly at the girl like a crazy person since the second she sat down.

At least she’d been right about the British thing.

“B-Bride.” She nodded, the word stuttering from her mouth with a specific type of panic that she’d realised was exclusive to a certain situation. A certain situation that involved beautiful women and Dani’s inability to speak any coherent English whenever they looked her way. “We went to college together.”

“College,” the woman repeated, the corner’s of her mouth turning upwards to reveal a smile that Dani thought could replace all of the stars in the sky if it tried hard enough.

Only that was the most intoxicating thing about her, the fact that she wasn’t even trying at all.

“You?” Dani managed to push out another word, the two she’d spoken in total feeling like an entire Shakespearean monologue as her lips were weighed down by the other woman’s gaze.

“Both. I work with them at Bly.”

“You teach the children?”

Dani’s mind flashed back to the video calls she had with Hannah during her time at Bly, the stories she’d told about the  _ perfectly splendid  _ Miss Jessel and her incredible child caring abilities. Somehow Dani struggled to see this woman in that vein, the curls that broke loose from her head and the slim silver chain around her neck conjuring a different picture than one of a natural-born perfectionist who devoted her life to, in Hannah’s words, not hers, the devil in male form.

“Oh no.” The woman smiled, breaking her eye contact with Dani to inspect the hands in her lap, her eyes pinned down to them as if she’d only just gained her ability to use them. Once her eyes returned to Dani, she couldn’t help but notice a faint blush underneath them that wasn’t there before.

Maybe British people weren't as calm and collected as Dani had first thought (not that the pink on the young woman’s cheek was anything compared to the stark red on Dani’s that blossomed upon that eye contact). Maybe the woman’s identity wasn’t the only thing she was wrong about.

“I’m Jamie. The gardener.” She reached over to shake Dani’s hand and managed to conjure a reaction that Dani thought only existed in films, the simple act of shaking hands making her insides flutter maybe a thousand times more than any touch she’d previously experienced, a thousand times more than the day an engagement ring was slipped upon that very hand in what should have been the most romantic moment of her life.

_ Should  _ have been.

“Nice to meet you, Jamie the Gardener.” Dani pushed hard in her entry to the charity fun run of flirting, not even in the same league as the Olympics the other woman was currently competing in with the classic raise of her brow. If you combined her actual language too, then Dani was sure she’d take the gold medal. And if she wanted then another prize along with it, one that just might have benefited Dani a touch more as well. “I’m Dani.”

“Well, Dani. I’m touched that you think I’m doting enough to teach children on a daily basis. If I’m honest I find regular people hard enough as it is, nevermind the ones who are not yet developed in the brain.”

“I teach fourth-grade.” Dani replied directly, letting out a laugh that matched the other woman’s and earned a dirty look from someone two pews ahead whose haircut and fascinator screamed ‘Can I speak to a manager?’ Or whatever the church’s version of a manager was - Dani still hadn’t quite figured out whether religion was her friend in recent times. 

I thought this was a wedding not-” The woman, Jamie, started but never got a chance to finish, the low hum of music raising in volume to hush the church.

Jamie turned her head to the door in anticipation but Dani let her eyes wander to Owen instead, having always found something more joyous in the groom’s reaction. She watched as he first caught sight of Hannah, the smile on his face lighting the candles around the room, making the sun that shone through the stained glass incredibly jealous of its luminescence. Dani thought about all the times she’d pictured herself walking down the aisle, about the dark spots that developed over the picture, the knowledge that it just wasn’t right.

Maybe someday she’d get to wear the big smile on Owen’s face herself, to be able to look down the aisle at someone and feel it. No pressure. No fear. Just that feeling that Owen wore proudly on his face, fit and tailored just for her own.

***

_ “We’ll get it tailored, of course.” Judy held up the dress to Dani’s body and although she wasn’t actually wearing it, Dani could feel how tight it was, the seams on the verge of tearing as it suffocated her body.  _

_ She figured there were worse ways to die, at least she’d look pretty when her lungs inevitably collapsed. For the dress really was something special, a 1950s Dior silhouette in blush pink that would turn her into one of the princesses she’d watched in movies growing up, her blonde hair complementing the colour perfectly ready for her Prince to wake her up and sweep her away. _

_ Only Dani kind of wanted him to press snooze on that alarm. Or better yet, throw it out of the window altogether. _

_ “It’s beautiful I-erm. I don’t know what to say.” _

_ Dani wasn’t very good with words. At first, she thought it was her feelings that she struggled with, listening to Eddie as he would pour all of his on the table so clear that Dani could see her reflection in them. She thought that maybe her brain just didn’t work that way, it didn’t feel those same things that Eddie felt and that was something she’d have to wait for. Until the day that she realised it did, just not in the way she was supposed to, not in a way she could find the words to explain to him, to explain to anyone. _

_ She knew what she felt, she just needed a few more scans of the thesaurus to try and get it out. _

_ “You don’t have to say anything.” Judy smiled. _

_ “But I want to. I want to say so much.” Dani fought back, but only in her head, the words getting trapped again at the filter, too big and too messy to fit through the tiny holes, beaten out by the neater words, the ones that fit through the gaps perfectly and didn’t hurt anyone. The words that didn’t hurt Judy. That wouldn’t hurt Eddie. _

_ “Thank you.” _

_ “I should be thanking you. I always dreamed of having a daughter to wear this.” _

_ The word made Dani flinch more than it should have, the cold chill of someone stepping foot on her future grave rushing over her body. Because in all the talk about the wedding and the dress and the reception and the honeymoon, Dani had almost forgotten what came after. The marriage, the family (the wife, the daughter). There was a whole other life after that one day Dani had been telling herself she just had to get past, a life that she knew she didn’t want. _

_ Once again, Dani found herself struggling with a response, simply letting Judy pull her into the tightest of hugs, her arms a casket around Dani’s body.  _

_ If she thought she was being suffocated earlier… _

_ “I’m feeling quite tired.” She faked a yawn as if she were being judged for an Academy Award; as if she wasn’t going to lie on her back with her eyes open all night wondering what would happen if she turned to her side and instead of Eddie there was someone else, someone with big hips and even bigger eyes. Someone she might have just loved in the way she knew other people did. _

_ “I’ll let you get to bed.” Judy rubbed her arms with affection and made Dani feel every single kind of guilt in one fell swoop. “Gotta make sure you’re well-rested for tomorrow?” _

_ “Tomorrow?” Dani’s brain tried to navigate its way through the regimented timetable Eddie and his mother had constructed but fell short. The guilt returned as she made a wish that it was cake tasting or flower picking, something that involved other human interaction besides the family she would soon be giving her life to. _

_ “We’re putting together your seating chart, of course.” _

_ Maybe wishes only happened in fairytales. Or in cases where the wishee was not a fumbling and mumbling lie. _

***

Dani felt her heart sink at least a centimetre or two lower as she scanned the place names on her way through the hall, the serious manifestation techniques she had adopted on the way to the venue clearly having failed as her name was written in red an entire table away from the “ _ Jamie Taylor _ ” she’d hoped to see it next too. However, it managed to rise back to its usual spot (perhaps even a touch higher) when a wicked thought crossed her mind a moment later.

After all, if there was one thing Dani had learnt from the failed engagement she had spent almost the entire day reliving it was that wishing never really worked her way - the only way to truly get what you want is to take action. To jump over the hurdles instead of waiting for them to fall on their own, or in this case, to jump over an entire table to land next to...who’d have thought it, Jamie Taylor.

She felt a bit bad swapping the names, grabbing the one next to the gardener’s name and plonking it where hers should have been in perhaps the least discreet way possible. Of course, she reasoned it away with the fact that she didn’t know anyone else, that she’d enjoy her evening much better with someone who she didn’t have to greet between mouthfuls of whatever brilliant cuisine Owen had trained the chef’s into cooking. Someone who she already felt like she’d known a lifetime.

Nothing to do with the fact that Jamie’s voice sounded like butterscotch and her laugh even greater. Or how Dani felt her feet lift off the ground when the young woman eventually made her way to the table. Nothing at all.

She sat down quickly, trying her best to act nonchalant and receive that Academy Award she still argued she should have won years earlier for convincing even herself that she could be attracted to anything but women, More specifically, women a tad taller than her with curly brown hair and slight calluses on her hands that she should not have been sexy but somehow did. But of course, she hadn’t known those specifics at the time.

Jamie wasn’t short to follow, sitting down beside Dani without much acknowledgement of the prior meeting, reaching for a bottle of wine as soon as she made contact with the chair. Only she stopped before picking one up, turning to face Dani with a calculating squint on her face.

“Red.” She nodded to her, a statement rather than a question. “I think you’re a red kind of girl.”

“Y-yes.” Dani spluttered, perplexed at how Jamie had figured it out but also fully aware that she’d have sat and drunk glass after glass of the bitter white she hated if that was what the other woman had suggested.

“Perfect.” She poured into Dani’s glass in a rather haphazard nature, leaning in close. “Can’t wait for the part where everyone’s too smashed to care and we can just drink this stuff straight from the bottle, ey?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Dani took a big gulp, needing every ounce of confidence it was offering.

“Even more perfect.”

And they let the comfortable silence wash over them for a second, Dani stealing at least five more glances before they were pulled out of their bubble by the high-pitched greeting of a child.

“Miss Taylor! You look splendid.”

“Why, thank you, Flora.” Jamie reached out for the girl’s hand to twirl her around like a ballerina. “As do you.”

Dani watched as she shuffled closer to Jamie, whispering in her ear then casting an obvious glance towards Dani in the most innocent of ways. She could have sworn she made out an ‘I know’ back from Jamie but didn’t have a chance to process it; the arrival of an older gentleman and a boy she recognised from Hannah’s photos stopping her train of thought and transferring her onto a new one, one with a rather abrupt final destination as she realised the error in her plot.

Oh shit.

“Look, Uncle Henry.” The boy pointed to the place names opposite Dani. “These are mine and Flora’s seats! With Miss Taylor.”

Oh shit, indeed.

Dani took another gulp.

“There must have been some mistake.” The man, who Dani now understood to be Henry Wingrave (big shot lawyer and owner of Bly who could probably end her entire chances of working with children in one blow) paced back and forth between the two tables as the children, presumably Miles and Flora, took their seats nonetheless.

“Sorry, I’ll-” Dani started but stopped at the sound of Jamie’s voice and, more importantly, the feeling of her hand resting on Dani’s thigh, squeezing tightly for a second as she piped up.

“I can watch the kids while we eat? Hannah and Owen have got enough on right now to deal with our seating hiccup.” She turned to Henry and lowered her voice. “And I’m sure you could use at least a couple hours without these two around your neck?”

“You make a fair point. Only if you’re sure?”

“I’m sure.” Jamie smiled. “As long as these wee gremlins promise to eat every single piece of veg on their plates today - even the broccoli!”

“Even the broccoli!” Flora repeated, beaming a grin to her uncle that reminded Dani of being a kid herself, forever desperate to hang out with the grownups before she knew what it meant to be one.

“Only if I’m allowed some wine,” Miles added. “Watered-down of course.”

“In my nightmares.” Henry ruffled the boy’s hair before walking away, leaving the kids to bicker to themselves and Dani to take a second to glance down at the lilac fabric of her dress just to make sure there wasn’t a burn hole where Jamie’s hand had been, the warm feeling still lingering long after it had moved.

“It was nice of you to offer to do that. To watch the kids.” Dani stated once she knew they were no longer listening, a trick she’d managed to just about master through her years of teaching. “You know, considering the whole ‘not developed in the brain yet’ thing.”

“These two aren’t so bad.” Jamie shrugged, leading Dani to believe there was a much more caring side of the young woman that didn’t always show up on first glance. “Besides, I think I’d much rather be sharing this bottle with a pretty American than my forty-odd-year-old boss, don’t you?”

“I guess.” Dani felt her cheeks turning even redder than they had in the church, practically redefining the colour wheel at Jamie’s words. 

With that the fire from that touch on her thigh started to spread, moving further and further up as Jamie’s eyes stayed glued to her, Dani almost giving in and crumbling to the flirting before their first course had even been served.

She was in for a long meal.

“I suppose I should be thanking God or something for messing up those place names then? I mean, how crazy? Hannah and Owen spend hours putting this together only for Henry to be swapped with the girl I just so happened to meet earlier today.” Her smile was all-knowing yet managed to clear Dani’s own mind of any thoughts whatsoever. Or at least of any that didn’t involve Jamie, the raspiness in her voice as she heavily implied something that both she and Dani knew to be true.

“A moment of serendipity. I think they call it.”

“Strange.” Jamie topped up her glass with a grin. “I’ve always called it something else.”

“Something else?” Dani tried to mimic the other girl’s flirty brow raise and, despite not being able to see her own face, knew she had failed miserably. 

“Starting with a ‘b’ and ending with a ‘t’. Something that would get these two blackmailing me for watered-down wine if they heard it.”

“I see.” Dani gave a panicked nod. “I guess we’ll just have to have the rest, you know, in case they try anything?”

“I’ll drink to that.”

***

_ “I need a drink.” Eddie turned his gaze to the waiter, ordering something Dani couldn’t even picture him taking a sniff off without passing out once he had the chance. _

_ “I’m sorry.” She reached for his hand, trying to hold on tight so he knew that she meant it, so he could feel what her words couldn’t put together. But instead, he moved his away. “I just can’t. I can’t.” _

_ “What did I do?” He asked her, pushing his glasses up his nose as he did when he was nervous. All Dani wanted was to pull him into a hug and tell him everything would be okay. Even to tell him that they could pretend she didn’t even say it. But she knew it was time. And she didn’t just owe it to him to have said it. She owed it to herself. _

_ “Nothing. It’s not like that.” _

_ She watched the tears well in his eyes and let her own ones fall too, tears she’d kept in for days, weeks, perhaps even years. Dropping onto the paper menu below her to leave wet splotches over words, the ink running between them till you couldn’t tell one from the other. _

_ “I thought you wanted this.” He struggled to meet her gaze, staring straight through her body to the back of the restaurant where couples toasted to one thing or another. She hoped that that could be him someday, prayed that that would be him one day. _

_ “I thought I did. I wanted to want it, Eddie. You have to believe me.” _

_ “Is it someone else?” _

_ She paused for a second, her mind flashing back to every single exchange of energy she’d ever had. She wanted to tell him it was. That it was Brooke Barnes in sixth-grade when she asked if Dani would teach her how to kiss so she could do it properly for the boys. That it was Rayna Farrell when they were sixteen, walking around the halls of their High School so openly herself. That it was the girl who fitted his mother’s dress to her body, touching her waist and complementing her shoulders as she tried her hardest not to combust inside.  _

_ “There is.” He carried on. “Tell me who, Danielle.” _

_ “It’s me, Eddie. I’m someone else.” _

_ She cried for herself now along with him, for the girl who’d been trapped in her chest and had only now managed to escape, finally getting to see the sun after a good twenty-seven years of darkness. She hated how she had treated Eddie, but also how she’d treated herself even more. _

_ “I thought you loved me.” He finally made eye contact, only he was not blurry in Dani’s eyes, a blur of pain and repression and a life she had never chosen. _

_ “I do, just not like I should, Eddie. This all just kept happening and I just kept thinking that if I waited longer then eventually I’d feel how I was supposed to. And when I didn’t I just didn’t know how to say it, I don’t know how to say it.” _

_ “Danielle, we can work at this. You can’t just throw all this away.” _

_ “It won’t work Eddie, I know it won’t.” She held onto his hands and this time he didn’t flinch. “You have to believe me, I’ve tried everything to make it work. Everything. But I just can’t help…” She trailed off, fighting to find the words. Fighting so hard to say them. _

_ “There is someone else.” He pulled away. “I knew it.” _

_ And then they came, fast and brutal, leaving a strange calm inside of Dani that juxtaposed the entire storm she had created across the dining table. _

_ “I like girls, Eddie. I like girls.” _

_ She watched the colour drain from his face, the visual change as his pain turned to anger: “Fuck you, Danielle.” _

_ She never knew if he meant to spill his drink over her, or whether it was a mere consequence of his rage, but it was something Dani thought about a lot. _

_ The brown marks stained her shirt with guilt for a long time, looking hardly any different later than night when Dani tried to wash them out. But over time they left, fading away with each wash, with each new remedy as time passed until they were only mere outlines. What was left of them formed only a reminder of her resilience to remove them, of her willpower to choose to live her life how she pleased. _

***

“I’m sure it’ll come out.” Dani dabbed at the stain frantically, almost too frenzied to think about the fact she was touching Jamie’s body.

Almost.

“Don’t sweat it.” Jamie brushed her off. “This thing is mostly black and I’m probably never gonna wear it ever again so I think we’re okay.”

“Oh, okay.” Dani stood up straight, bawling the wet paper towel in her hands awkwardly, knowing she should go plonk it in the bin but also not wanting to move. Jamie must have noticed because she snatched it out of her hand anyway, throwing it into one of the toilets and doing a small celebration once she realised she’d hit her shot.

It might have been one of the most adorable things Dani had ever seen.

“You’re not supposed to put paper towels down the toilet, it could block the drain.” She pointed, her pathetic attempt to hide her attraction falling right down into the water alongside the paper towel.

“You are such a teacher, oh my god.” Jamie laughed, placing her hand on Dani’s arm for a split second as she did so. That feeling of warmth returned and oh how Dani had managed to miss it.

“What can I say? I’m a stickler for the rules,” Dani replied, thinking of all the years she’d spent drawing within the lines of her colouring books. About the one day she’d managed to cross them. And where she would even be if she hadn’t.

“You weren’t earlier when you switched those names.” Jamie laughed yet again and Dani almost grabbed her hand and placed it on her arm herself when she didn't do so again.

“That was an exception. I didn’t know anyone else. I had no other choice.”

“Because you knew me so well, from those, what, three minutes of conversation we had?”

“I knew you better than anyone else, Jamie the Gardener,” Dani spoke with tipsy confidence, hoping inside that maybe, just maybe, this girl she had known for less than a day felt that same feeling she did.

That impossible feeling of deja vu.

“Is that so?” Jamie moved closer, mere inches separating their bodies.

Dani knew it was rhetorical but wanted nothing more than to answer, to cry yes, yes, yes a hundred times right into the young lady’s ear.

They were even closer once Dani exhaled.

And suddenly everything was so much warmer. The warmest she’d felt since stepping off the plane into April showers of Southern England. The warmest she’d felt since the day she left Eddie. The warmest she’d felt in the longest of time. And it could have been the alcohol or maybe just the girl, but Dani had never imagined finding a hotel bathroom so picturesque.

Dani thought about leaning in to kiss her, their eyes locked onto each other with a keycode she couldn’t quite figure out. But she couldn’t break it, instead reaching for Jamie's hand in one quick movement, letting her know without the words she so badly struggled with that she wanted her, she wanted  _ them _ .

“Who the hell knew?” Jamie looked down at their hands, clasped together in that same safe that their eyes were. 

The air between them thinned as Dani pushed her body that tiny bit closer, so close that she could smell the red wine on Jamie’s breath and the rose hips from her perfume. She felt the other woman’s lip brush against her own, ready to push herself forward and melt into her body until she too was infused with the smell of flowers.

That was, of course, until the door flew open and released the human equivalent of a sledgehammer to snap apart the chains that were tying them together at that moment. A small, high pitched sledgehammer who, thankfully, seemed completely naive of the bathroom rendezvous she had just interrupted.

Dani understood then why Jamie disliked children so much.

“Miss Taylor! Miss Clayton!” Flora ran up to the pair with a sense of urgency, the fact that the young girl had taken to calling her by her formal name throughout the evening making Dani chuckle and momentarily forget about her previous thoughts of disdain. 

_ Momentarily _ .

“Why, hello, Flora.” Dani knelt down to the young girl, pretending she didn’t see Jamie checking out her appearance from the corner of her eye.

“You simply have to come dance with me!” Flora grabbed Dani’s hand, looking back and forth between the pair of them with the utmost innocence. “Miles is just dreadful and Uncle Henry is even worse. I need one of you two to dance with me.”

“I’d be honoured.” Dani let the young girl pull her away, turning her head back to look at Jamie who followed in suit, a smile on her face that Dani wanted to capture and keep in the clear plastic slot of her purse until it grew old and worn. A smile that simply read ‘You got me.'

She kept catching it again when she danced with Flora, Jamie’s eyes whizzing over from across the room. They met every now and again, Dani pulling her own gaze quickly back to Flora, praying the other woman didn’t see the blush it brought on under the bright lights of the disco.

It didn’t take long for her to walk over, ever so cool and casual despite the fire she cast in front of her steps, burning Dani’s body the closer she got. 

“Hey.” She tapped Flora on the shoulder. “I’ve been chatting to Owen and I think he needs you to be his new dancing partner.”

“But what about Miss Clayton?” She replied, almost reminding Dani of a younger version of herself. Too kind to ever leave anyone behind despite the brighter path across the road. 

“I’ve got this one covered, kid.”

And Dani let the other woman take her body to call it her own, Jamie’s hand placed gently on the small of her back, the other locked with Dani’s as it had been in the bathroom. Dani let her own free hand fall onto Jamie’s shoulder almost naturally, pushing one of her stray hairs aside as they fell into each other and began to sway with the music. She’d never been the greatest dancer but Jamie was certainly a strong beacon, guiding her through the dark across the floor slowly and safely to shore.

_ Open the door _

_ Show me your face tonight _

_ I know it's true _

_ No one heals me like you _

_ And you hold the key _

She soon placed her head on the other woman’s shoulder, the smell of roses returning as she let the music take them away. Jamie’s hand moved further down, just tickling her skin but not daring to venture too far.

_ Never again _

_ I turn away from you _

_ I'm so heavy tonight _

_ And your love is alright _

_ I do believe _

“I’ve never danced like this..with a girl before.” Dani lifted her head to whisper in the woman’s ear.

“There’s a first time for everything.” Jamie pulled away for a second and dipped Dani from her back, taking her off guard before pulling her in close again, their bodies magnetic with each step.

_ That not everything is gonna be the way _

_ You think it ought to be _

_ It seems like every time I try to make it right _

_ It all comes down on me _

Dani’s mind flashed back to senior prom, her hand in Eddie’s as they swayed to the music, her eyes scanning the room looking for something more, desperate to feel something more. At that moment, however, her eyes wouldn’t leave Jamie, the pink of her lipstick smudged from each bottle of wine they had shared, the idea that Dani could smudge it even more a figment of her overgrown intentions.

_ Please say honestly _

_ You won't give up on me _

_ And I shall believe _

_ I shall believe _

_ I shall believe _

_ And I shall believe _

Before she knew what she was doing, Dani’s hand had started to grip Jamie’s shoulder tighter, seeing flashes of light and dark as she pressed herself into the other girl and caught her lips just right. The kiss was soft at first, two kids on the playground playing games. But soon it became deeper, their bodies becoming one as Dani gave everything and more to the other woman.

She tasted like home.

“Blimey,” Jamie muttered as they pulled apart, eyes wild and pieces of hair that Dani hadn’t even realised she had touched strewn out of place.

“Something like that, yeah,” Dani spoke matter of factly, unable to think of a word in her vocabulary to quite match the situation as Jamie had. 

And they carried on that way for some time, one song merging into the next as they swayed, Dani managing to steal the occasional kiss between the melodies. All the way until the DJ announced the last orders at the bar and played one final song for the happy couple.

Dani went to thank them with Jamie by her side, a tight hug from Hannah reminding her of the importance of chosen family. A wink from Owen letting her know that the feelings she tried to hide were written across her face in thick black ink for everyone to see. 

Only when she really thought about it she realised that she didn’t even care.

“So.” Jamie turned to her once they were alone, her fingers only a few presses away from calling a taxi to take her home. 

Dani clutched them in her own in the greatest bid to stop them.

“I should probably get back.” The girl smiled. “Get out of this dress.”

Dani nodded her head in agreement, hoping that Jamie realised her nod only applied to the latter half of her statement and certainly not the former.

“Or, you could stay?” Dani took the shot, the wine-confidence telling her that any chance of success was worth the humiliation of a miss. “I have an er-room here, upstairs.”

“Are you sure?” Jamie asked her, something warming inside Dani at the knowledge that she was asking genuinely, that she wouldn’t have minded if Dani had turned around and told her no. Not that she would have done, the urge to grab the other woman and pull her into the elevator beating through her body at a rapid pace.

“Positive.” Dani pulled her into another kiss, giggling all the way as they travelled to her room, stumbling awkwardly around end tables and artwork as she struggled to keep her hands off the other woman.

“Nice room.” Jamie peered her head around once they’d made it inside, stopping to point at the book left on Dani’s bedside. “You read Bronte?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too.” 

“Really?” Dani laughed. “I don’t picture you as a Bronte girl.”

“Hand on heart, I promise,” Jamie replied - Dani finding a new love for the word once she’d heard it in Jamie's accent. She wanted Jamie to promise her even more, to promise her everything.

“Are you here to talk about books?” Dani moved closer to the other girl, one second away from pressing her index finger against the other woman’s chest.

“Fuck no.”

With that Jamie pushed her against the wall, hands either side of her head as she left soft kisses on Dani’s neck, Dani letting a moan escape her mouth at the contact. It didn’t take long for them to make it to the bed, their dresses on the floor once she gave her approval, the feeling of Jamie’s body on top of her providing adrenaline she’d never quite experienced.

“I’ve never done this before.” She’d whispered between kisses, her hands on Jamie’s breasts as she admired the woman’s body, afraid that she didn’t quite know what to do with it.

“Don’t worry.” Jamie had replied, assuring Dani that everything would be okay and she was there to help her. 

Dani held her with everything she had, her mind spinning in circles and her eyes seeing stars beyond the outline of Jamie’s body, lighting up the beauty in her pale skin as she touched Dani with a gentle but thorough force she’d never been party to before. She let her body be taken over, paying Jamie back in the best way she could, letting the other woman guide each movement, each moment until they collapsed into each other, two bodies tangled across hotel bed sheets trying to remember how to breathe.

At first, she tried to fight sleep, willing her eyes to stay open for a tad longer so she could look at Jamie some more, longing to ask the gardener everything she wanted to know before the sun rose. But the dark sky soon got the better of her, her mind slipping away as the other woman planted a kiss on her forehead (something which she’d later ponder over for some time, trying to figure out whether it was real of the start of a dream).

Upon waking, Dani couldn’t quite remember the last time she’d slept that well; realising as she looked across to Jamie that perhaps she never had.

“Morning.” The other woman met her eyes, her hair a mess of curls that Dani wanted to run her hands through. Which she did, in fact, do for another hour as they lay there, smiling and chatting before Dani decided she needed some coffee, Jamie clearly disgusted by her attempt at making it by the visible grimace on her face.

“God, you need to come to a proper British coffee shop so you can realise how this is meant to taste.” She popped the mug on the bedside table, her words walking a thin tightrope of flirty and friendly, Dani not quite sure how to take them.

“Well, I don’t really know where any are. I’d probably need someone to show me.”

“How long are you here for?”

“Two weeks.” Dani looked Jamie in the eyes. “I figured I might as well do some sightseeing before I head back home, get the train to London, maybe.”

“Do you want company?” Jamie responded, simple and easy as though she were asking Dani if she wanted another cup of coffee.

“Erm, yeah.” Dani spluttered, a tiny version of herself doing somersaults inside of her brain as she tried her best to remain calm on the outside. “I haven’t really got any solid plans though, for the two weeks.”

“I don’t see a problem. One day at a time is fine by me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!!! Please make sure to leave a comment if you enjoyed or want to see more, it would be very much appreciated xxx


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